Nadal in Roland Garros Final

Rafael Nadal blazed past Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, to clinch his berth in the finals of the French Open. He will face Dominic Thiem in the finals on Sunday, 10th June, at 13:00 GMT. Nadal will be on the lookout for his 11th title at Roland Garros, and currently holds the record for the most number of French Open wins at 10 wins.

Del Potro was unable to capitalize on some of the advantages that came his way early in the first set. He managed to hold on to serve, down 4-5 in the first set, but Nadal quickly set him up with having to save two break points in the game, which del Potro ultimately was unable to do. Losing that set 6-4, he found himself always chasing the ball and being a step behind a surging Nadal whose confidence grew with every point that he won. The second set would have been a total whitewash had del Potro not claimed a game back, staring down a 0-5 deficit until then, before being put out of his misery with the Nadal serve. After the match, del Potro indicated that while Thiem had beaten Nadal on clay in Spain, he fancied the youngsters chances as being lucky due to his relative inexperience with being in a grand slam final.

Nadal’s record at the French open is 85-2, and such domination will be one of the things that will help him get past his opponent on Sunday. Still, the element of having once defeated Nadal gives Thiem a fair ‘wild card’ air, and the potential to repeat this, when they clash again, tomorrow.